Evernote backtracks on unlimited storage for Premium tier; sets 10GB monthly limit

Note-taking app Evernote today announced that it’s rolling back unlimited storage for its Premium subscription tier of service, which first became available in late April. Going forward, Evernote Premium will be capped at 10 GB storage per month.

Before the April introduction of the $49.99/year Premium tier, Evernote’s paid service allowed users to store as much as 4 GB per month. And before that, the limit was 1 GB a month. So the unlimited storage option must have proved quite appetizing for some Evernote users. But Evernote was unpleasantly surprised by the consumer response to its offer.

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“Unfortunately, ‘unlimited’ is such a powerful term that it ended up being both confusing and problematic. Almost instantly, people began using Evernote in a completely new way: mass file storage and backup,” Evernote vice president of marketing and brand Andrew Sinkov wrote in a blog post on the news today. Service quality went down, Sinkov wrote.

And that’s not something Evernote likes to see — it’s supporting 150 million users. And the company is looking to grow further, having installed former Google executive Chris O’Neill as its new chief executive last month. Product and monetization are as critical now as they’ve ever been.

So it’s not surprising to see Evernote trying to not frustrate those of its users who really, really want unlimited storage.

“We realize that some folks may have chosen Premium specifically because they thought unlimited is really what they needed,” Sinkov wrote. “We’re happy to refund your purchase if that’s the case.”